.

The concept sketches for the characters in 'UNmarked'. The size of the characters are are relative to each other.

Have found various images of paperdolls.

http://www.paperdolls.com/pages/pdgallry.htm

Act 1

1. Photocopy machine
2. Bells
3. Paper rustling (various)
4. Hydraulics
5. Heavy metal door opening
6. Heavy metal door Clang
7. Alarm noises
8. Lound clunking of machine
9. Thud
10. Crumpled paper
11. Spitting / vomitting sounds

Act 2

1. Background machine ambience
2. Rustling of paper
3. Voice over (refer to script)
4. Hydraulics
5. Heavy metal door opening
6. Heavy metal door Clang
7. Quick rustling of paper
8. Marker squeaks
9. Paper being ripped
10. Thud
11. Gasp

Act 3

1. Soundtrack
2. Slow rustling
3. Faint machinery
4. Shredder whirring
5. Rustling of paper shreds
6. Heavy metal dragged across floor
7. Photocopy machine
8. Whirring of shredder
9. Bell
10. Screams

Notes: Am currently working on the soundtrack to go into 'Act 3'.

Have completed the detailed script for "UNmarked" and is available here.

http://www.geocities.com/justinfoo/UNMARKED_script.doc

If the link doesn't work, just copy the address and paste it into a new browser window. Still some niggling problems that needs ironing out.

1. Birth of unmarked child
a. Scenes of paper people coming out of machines.
b. Scenes of parents picking up their daughters and walking out of scene.
c. Daughter machine has a malfunction and spits out a crumpled unmarked daughter.

2. Shunned by parents
a. Parent's reaction to unmarked daughter.
b. Roughly pushes her aside and picks up another girl behind her.
c. Unmarked daughter 'looks' longingly at other girls being picked up by more parents

3. Stationery depot
a. Unmarked daughter spots a stationery depot and runs towards it.
b. Picks up a pen and starts marking herself, making a mess.
c. Spots a hole puncher and tries to punch out eyes but ends up looking worse.

4. Paper shredder
a. Daughter walks around looking depressed.
b. Spots a paper shredder.
c. Fades to black screen where we hear sounds of heavy object being pushed.
d. Paper shredder is now located under printer and is shredding up every girl that is born.

These are various images from which i will draw inspiration from for the characters in "UNmarked". Characters designs will only be a full frontal view and a full back view which is printed on both sides of the paper.
 

 

Been testing different renders for the warehouse settings to develop various 'clean' looks. Model is from an old classroom set. This is also a test for different lighting solutions. Radiosity takes too long (almost 15 minutes a frame) and so other lighting solutions will have to be used. These are all rendered below 5 minutes per frame.
 
1. Light incidence angle (for high contrast)/ Outlines / Super Cel Shader. 
 

 

 
2. Outlines / Realistic shading. (Overall softer feel)
 

 
3. Outlines / Realistic shading / Super Cel Shaded foreground elements (characters, props etc.)
 
 

A few prelimanery tests for maps, shaders & procedurals. Each render took no more than a minute on a Pentium4 1.7Ghz machine with 256Mb of RAM.
 
 
Black & White  / Super Cel shader / Outlined:
 

 
Colour Image map / Super Cel shader  / Outlined:
 

 
Colour Image map / Procedural Bump Mapping / Super Cel Shader / Outlined:
 
 

 
1. Exposition (Beginning): Scene establishment
 
2. Rising Action: Scenes of machines churning out paper figures. Monotonous process. Piece of paper that doesn't have prints on it is cut. Unmarked daughter is born.
 
Plot Point 1: Unmarked daughter is shunned by supposed parents. Parents opt for 'normal' daughter.
 
3. Conflict: Unmarked daughter realises why she's shunned. Realises that she's different. Feels angry.
 
4. Climax: Unmarked daughter starts feeling jealous and tries to make other 'daughters' unattractive by dirtying them, pushing them over and stomping on them but they just get up and dust themselves and they're as good as new. This hints at what material they're made off. Unmarked daughter realises that it's pointless.
 
Plot Point 2: Unmarked daughter finds a stationery depot. Tries to give herself an identity by drawing eyes, mouths, dresses etc. She falls over and the ink smears, giving her a freakish look. Feels even more depressed. Smeared ink looks like she's crying.
 
5. Falling action: She now sees a paper hole puncher punching papers. She runs and throws herself onto it hoping to punch out some eyes. However she only ends up looking like a mangled figure.
 
6. Resolution: She looks in a mirror and is shocked at her hideous appearance. Runs around crying. She spots a paper shredder nearby. Scene fades to black.
 
7. End: Scene re-opens and we see that the paper shredder has been moved directly at the end of the printer and daughters that are born are instantly shredded. 

"If everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other".

The unmarked girl can be considered attractive due to her difference. She can be so attractive that the parent figures are actually fighting over her and starts ripping her limbs off. There can be a realisation later that she's torn and the parents actually resume their normal scenario.

1. Unmarked girl faxes herself to another place where she's more welcome.

2. Hanging end where the story ends when the unmarked girl discovers the paper shredder.

3. Story ends when the unmarked girl discovers the paper shredder and later:
     a. Pushes the paper shredder to the printing machines to shred up all the other girls.
     b. Empties a bucket full of other paper girls into the paper shredder.

1. Exposition (Beginning): Scene establishment

2. Rising Action: Scenes of machines churning out paper figures. Monotonous
process. Piece of paper that doesn't have prints on it is cut. Unmarked daughter is born.

Plot Point 1: Unmarked daughter is shunned by supposed parents. Parents opt for 'normal' daughter.

3. Conflict: Unmarked daughter realises why she's shunned. Realises that she's different. Feels angry.

4. Climax: Unmarked daughter starts feeling jealous and tries to make other 'daughters' unattractive by dirtying them, pushing them over and stomping on them but they just get up and dust themselves and they're as good as new. This hints at what material they're made off. Unmarked daughter realises that it's pointless.

Plot Point 2: Unmarked daughter finds a stationery depot. Tries to give herself an identity by drawing eyes, mouths, dresses etc. She falls over and the ink smears, giving her a freakish look. Feels even more depressed. Smeared ink looks like she's crying.

5. Falling action: She now sees a paper hole puncher punching papers. She runs and throws herself onto it hoping to punch out some eyes. However she only ends up looking like a mangled figure.

6. Resolution: She looks in a mirror and is shocked at her hideous appearance. Runs around crying.

7. End: She spots a paper shredder nearby. Climbs onto it and we see her fall. (Think Suicidal Jumper)

The idea for "UNmarked" came to me as I was browing through my mind-map notes and listening to Groove Armada's 'Vertigo' album.

"If everybody looked the same,
          we'd get tired of looking at each other"

                                               Groove Armada

"UNmarked" is going to be a 3D animated piece that starts off at a 'factory' which produces (prints) paper-people. Every man, woman, son and daughter is printed and die-cut with exactly the same template.

The story starts when one of the paper accidentally bypasses the printing process (probably blown by the wind) and goes straight to the die-cut stage thus creating a 'daughter' that doesn't have an identity resulting in the parent figures calling her 'Freak' and choosing another 'daughter' over her.

The 'Daughter' then ends up trying to 'draw' and make up her own identity. In all her efforts, she is still unable to look like the rest and is still shunned by the community. In her desperation, we see her trying all sorts of things to fit in and is faced with all sorts of calamity.

Finally, she see's a paper shredder nearby...